[NEWS] TURKEY RAISES PRESSURE ON EUROPE TO TAKE BACK FOREIGN ISIS FIGHTERS
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ISTANBUL - Following its
military operation that gave Turkey control over part of north-eastern Syria,
the government in Ankara pressured European countries to repatriate hundreds of
their citizens detained as fighters for the Islamic State.
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Turkey’s demands could
lead to new tensions between Ankara and the European Union because many
European countries, worried about the danger posed by radicalised and battle-hardened
returnees, are reluctant to allow the return of Islamic State (ISIS) fighters
or their wives and children.
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“We need full
cooperation and active partnership with our allies in terms of fighting with
terrorism,” Fahrettin Altun, communications director for Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wrote in response to questions. Turkey was “suffering a
lot” because of the problem, he added.
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The Turkish Army and
pro-Turkish Syrian rebels secured a stretch of Syrian territory between the
border towns Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn since the beginning of their operation
October 9.
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Ankara wants to push the
Syrian-Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia away from the border but
says it is fighting ISIS as well. Turkish officials said the military captured
the sister of dead Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the northern
Syrian town of Azaz.
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Ankara’s appeals to the
Europeans point to a wider problem for the European Union. The YPG-dominated
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) hold thousands of ISIS fighters and tens of
thousands of their family members in camps that have not been taken over by the
Turks or lie outside proposed “safe zones.” The SDF’s detainees include 800
fighters from Europe, 700 women and 1,500 children, a CNN report stated.
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Turkish Interior
Minister Suleyman Soylu said about 1,200 foreign ISIS fighters are in Turkish
prisons and 287 members, including women and children, were recaptured during
Turkey’s offensive after they escaped from detention centres.
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Ankara accuses the YPG
of freeing around 750 ISIS members. Altun said there are 20 German nationals
among the suspected ISIS supporters in Turkish detention.
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Erdogan said in October
that 500 ISIS members who escaped detention in northern Syria during the
Turkish operation were from “various countries” such as France, the Netherlands
and Germany. He added that around 150 Turkish ISIS members caught in Syria
would be tried before Turkish courts but it was not clear what the Europeans
would do. “Will those countries accept to take back the ones that joined ISIS?”
Erdogan asked.
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Approximately 40,000
foreigners from all over the world joined ISIS during the expansion of the
jihadists’ self-styled caliphate in 2014 and 2015. About 10% of those were from
Western Europe, the European Parliament said in a report last year.
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About 1,300 of European
ISIS fighters had returned to their home countries by 2016, the report stated.
The rest were either killed or captured as the extremists suffered military
setbacks that ended with the loss of the last piece of territory held by ISIS
earlier this year.
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The issue is creating
friction between Turkey and European countries, some of which have stripped
their nationals involved with ISIS of citizenship.
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Although under the New
York Convention of 1961, it is illegal to leave someone stateless, several
countries, including Britain and France, have not ratified it and recent cases
have triggered prolonged legal battles, Agence France-Presse reported.
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Britain stripped more
than 100 people of citizenship for allegedly joining jihadist groups abroad.
High-profile cases such as teenage ISIS recruit Shamima Begum and alleged
recruit Jack Letts sparked court proceedings and fierce political debate in
Britain. Soylu said Turkey would not accept this approach.
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“The world has devised a
new method,” he said. “They say ‘Let’s strip them of their citizenship… Let
them be tried where they are.’
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“It is impossible for us
to accept this view… We will send Daesh (ISIS) members to their countries
whether they strip them of their citizenship or not.”
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Turkey is backed by US
President Donald Trump who said Europe is not doing enough to deal with its
citizens that joined ISIS.
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“They came from France,
they came from Germany, they came from the UK. They came from a lot of
countries,” Trump said in October. “And I actually said to them, if you don’t
take them, I’m going to drop them right on your border and you can have fun
capturing them again,” he added, in reference to the Europeans.
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Anthony Dworkin, a
senior policy fellow at the European Council for Foreign Relations, argued that
European countries should repatriate their citizens despite political and legal
challenges. Foot-dragging could have unwanted consequences, Dworkin wrote in a
commentary on the council’s web page.
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“As negotiations between
the Kurdish authorities and the Syrian government continue, Damascus could
emerge as the arbiter of the detainees’ fate” in eastern Syria, Dworkin wrote.
“A regime with a well-documented history of torturing and killing prisoners
would have control of many hundreds of European citizens, including large
numbers of children.”
Full article: The Arab
Weekly – 10 November 2019
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